


Aftermath

by company_of_thorin



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M, Newt swears a bit, also Raleigh, not all that surprising
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 02:03:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/company_of_thorin/pseuds/company_of_thorin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you do when a war is over? You deal with what's left. Newt and Hermann are having trouble directly facing what they both know is there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hermann sat stiffly in the chair at his desk, his eyes not focusing from exhaustion and his hand still curled around his cane. Newton was seated in equal silence across the room, his forehead resting on the heel of his hands, elbows on his knees as he was bent forwards. Dust and debris was still all over him, his dar hair sticking up in all directions and his glasses broken, blood still slowly seeping out of his mouth, nose and numerous cuts and scrapes. Hermann looked better, but not by much. He had been bleeding only from the nose, but that had long since stopped, most having been wiped away. His hair was a disheveled mess, even after numerous feeble attempts to smooth it down. 

Newt slowly lifted his head, looking over to where he assumed Hermann was and feeling a faint buzz in his head. All he could do was stare for what seemed like the longest while. Herm had always seemed impervious to him, well, apart from any jibes or remarks that he shot, but other than that it always seemed like nothing got to him, and so naturally it shocked him to see the elder man not doing something. Even though Newt was known and regarded as the hyperactive one, Hermann seemed to be just as incapable of not working. He was always thinking, writing, typing or talking, even muttering to himself. Never not doing something. It made him seem less alien, and a bit more familiar, to see him as physically worn as Newton himself was. 

“How the hell did this even happen?” Newt asked in a strained voice. “How did we end up like this? When I first joined the PPDC…I never imagined shit like this would happen to me. I mean, I thought it would have been cool”  
“You never were a very good practically prepared man. Scientists should be prepared for any outcome.” Hermann replied flatly. Newton frowned,  
“So you’re telling me you considered it a possibility that one day you’d drift, get the practical _shit_ beat out of you, and then basically save the world?” He asked incredulously, almost mockingly.  
“Oh yes, I’m definitely sure I pondered it at some point.” Herm replied sarcastically, his eyes blank even as he rose a brow. 

The biologist ignored the remark and groaned as the buzzing in his head intensified, dropping his head into his hands, clutching at his hair. Hermann spared him a glance, and then drawled,  
“If that doesn’t go away I suggest you visit medical. Acute deafness is a possibility; not surprising how loud everything was today. Suppose this means you’ll be playing that rubbish you call music even louder now.”  
“There’s a definite difference between loss of hearing and buzzing in the back of your head from who knows fucking where.” Newt said, his voice escalating into an annoyed shout. 

Hermann’s eyes flicked across the room at his words, but quickly dismissed it.  
“Then take some form of medication, just stop bothering me with your incessant whining.” Newt glared at the back of Hermann's head before storming out of the lab in a furious haste, fuming at the mathematician’s complete lack of understand and care, slamming the door behind him with such force that it swung back open.

Doctor Gottlieb stared at the wall as he felt a sense of hurt and anger flash in the back of his mind, neither being emotions of his own. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed small remnants of life back into himself by massaging his temples.


	2. Chapter 2

Newton stormed down the halls in a rage, his jaw clenched, head pounding, and a bloody tang on his tongue. His right hand tapped out a frantic rhythm against his thigh, his other hand shaking as he clenched and unclenched it. He reached the door he hadn’t realised he was heading for and rapped erratically on the metal door. It opened promptly to a blond man in a dark singlet, and Newton looked up, as if he only just realised he was there. 

“Hey Newt, what’s up, you need something?” The blond asked coolly.  
“Raleigh. Uh, no. I mean yes! I uh, I need to talk to you about something.” He spluttered out, his previous anger extinguished like a bucket of water over flames.  
Raleigh smirked and stepped away from the door, gesturing for him to enter. Newton walked in slowly, and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room until told to sit in the chair at the desk. 

“You look like hell man, haven’t you gone for a shower at least yet?”  
“No, haven’t uh, haven’t gotten around to it.” Newton replied with a sniff, wiping some of the fresh blood away with the palm of his hand, Raleigh pushed off from the edge of the edge of the bed, tossing a box of tissues at Newt before falling back down. Newt nodded in thanks and began to clean himself up. 

“What’s up, you said you needed to talk?” Raleigh asked, a small tone of concern laced in his words.  
The biologist seemed to remember himself, sitting up a little straighter as he began to talk. “Yeah, well, I figured since you’re a jaeger pilot and all and you’ve been one for a long time I thought that you could help me, after all you guys drift all the time and who better to ask then someone with experience, right? I’ve only done it, like, twice and it was hardly stable and not really what I was looking for, even with everything I know this is still one of those few areas I’m still kinda fuzzy on it, or maybe the neural overloads just fried my ability to make sense of this, but–“

“Newt, slow down, get to the point!” the pilot urged.  
“Right, yeah, sorry I guess I get a little carried away, I haven’t slept in a while, or eaten yet so that’s probably not helping much, I’ll get to that later– anyway,” He took a breath and thought it through in his head for a short moment, willing himself to stay on topic. 

“I was wondering, when two pilots drift, what’s it like in your head afterwards?” He asked, “Because there’s this incessant buzzing in the back of my head, and–and sometimes it feels like there's something there and I can’t figure it out, like as soon as I reach for it, it just vanishes!” He reached up, cans clamping over his ears. "It's driving me insane, man, you gotta help me!"

Raleigh eyed the doctor, “Sounds like an after-affect of drifting, it differs from case to case. You drifted with Dr Gottlieb, right?”  
“Hermann, yeah.” Newt nodded quickly, deciding not to add in _"yeah, and a Kaiju"_.  
“Did you ask him? If he’s got the same thing, then like I said, it's most likely a result of the neural handshake, should wear off in a few hours. How long ago was your drift?”  
Newton glanced at the clock on the wall, “'Bout eleven hours ago.” He replied, startled by how much time had passed already. He didn’t notice that he'd started tapping frantically on his thighs while he bounced his knees. 

Raleigh watched him carefully, “Well, it shouldn’t really last that long, not for you guys, you only drifted the once.” Raleigh stood, stretching his arms back. "But then again, I've never drifted with a Kaiju." He added with a chuckle. "Man, that was some bad-ass shit."

Newt laughed with him weakly, trailing off as he tried to grasp at the sensation at the back of his head, reaching for it. The clearing of a throat interrupted him,  
“Newt, you’re uh, you’re bleeding again.” Becket said with a small gesture to his nose. Newton quickly pressed the tissues to the source of the warm trickle and tipped his head forwards. 

The pilot walked over to clap a hand on his shoulder.  
“Look man, your best bet would be to talk to Hermann about it, ask him if he’s got the same thing. If he does, it’s probably something to do with drifting with a Kaiju, and if he doesn’t then go see the guys at medical.” 

Newt nodded and stood, discarding the bloodied tissues in the trash and taking a few spare in case.  
"Thanks Raleigh, I'll um, see you around yeah?" With a nod of confirmation from the other, he started to head back off, freezing when he remembered something else he'd meant to ask. He darted back to the door, "Hey!" he exclaimed, Raleigh peeked back around his half closed door with raised eyebrows. "Wh–what do you do when a war's over?" He smiled grimly, "You deal with what's left." The pilot waited until he walked away to close the door, a faint and fond smile ghosting over his lips.


End file.
